Posted
by
timothy
on Tuesday March 06, 2012 @11:22AM
from the thinking-outside-the-lab dept.

LilaG writes "Not just a way to transport trains at high speed, magnetic levitation could find use in diagnosing disease. Researchers at Harvard have shown that they can detect proteins in blood using MagLev. The researchers, led by George Whitesides, use levitation to detect a change in the density of porous gel beads that occurs when a protein binds to ligands inside the beads. The lower the bead levitates, the more protein it holds. The method (abstract of paywalled article) could work for detecting disease proteins in people's blood samples in the developing world: The magnets cost only about $5 each, and the device requires no electricity or batteries. Because the beads are visible to the naked eye, researchers can make measurements with a simple ruler with a millimeter scale."

filing patent now for version that uses standard measurement on the ruler instead of metric.

Yeah, because gallons per furlong is a useful measurement.

What you call 'standard' measurement, the rest of us see as mostly a random collection of measures based on fairly arbitrary things. Hogsheads, firkins, furlongs, leagues, cubits, gills, rods, and other random old school things really make no sense to most of us. The dick-length of the 3rd Earl of Canterbury is kind of a stupid measure (ok, it's not a real o

filing patent now for version that uses standard measurement on the ruler instead of metric.

Yeah, because gallons per furlong is a useful measurement.

What you call 'standard' measurement, the rest of us see as mostly a random collection of measures based on fairly arbitrary things. Hogsheads, firkins, furlongs, leagues, cubits, gills, rods, and other random old school things really make no sense to most of us. The dick-length of the 3rd Earl of Canterbury is kind of a stupid measure (ok, it's not a real one, but it's not that far off the mark).

Granted, I grew up during the transition to metric... so my height and weight is feet and pounds, but pretty much everything is metric.

understanding, of course, that metric is "mostly a random collection of measures based on fairly arbitrary things" just because these things are one ten millionth the distance from Peoria to Timbuktu (equator to north pole through Paris? whatever, exactly as arbitrary) doesn't make them any less arbitrary.

like 0 degrees to 100 degrees for water from freezing to boiling, at a certain temperature and pressure... they're no less arbitrary than the definition of degree ferenheit

Tell me, quickly, how much is a millionth of a mile? No, don't use a computer, tell it from your gut feeling, how big is a millionth of a mile?

You know what? The quickest way to get a feeling for an order of magnitude like that is converting to metric. One mile is 1609 meters, therefore a millionth of that is 1.6 millimeter, which translates roughly to about 1/16".

filing patent now for version that uses standard measurement on the ruler instead of metric.

Yeah, because gallons per furlong is a useful measurement.

What you call 'standard' measurement, the rest of us see as mostly a random collection of measures based on fairly arbitrary things. Hogsheads, firkins, furlongs, leagues, cubits, gills, rods, and other random old school things really make no sense to most of us. The dick-length of the 3rd Earl of Canterbury is kind of a stupid measure (ok, it's not a real one, but it's not that far off the mark).

Granted, I grew up during the transition to metric... so my height and weight is feet and pounds, but pretty much everything is metric.

The meter is supposed to be 1/10,000,000 of the distance from the equator to the north pole but the measurement was later determined to be off. 1 Kg is almost the mass of 1 liter of water at STP so again the SI measurement is based on an error. The mol was determined by the number of atoms in 12g of carbon 12, that is completely arbitrary. Arguing that using 1/10,000,000 of the distance from the equator to the north pole is some how better then dick-length of the 3rd Earl of Canterbury is nonsense as they

this entire discussion has been offtopic, spinning off my patent joke. it looks like i whooshed the entire slashdot population. the joke was about patents, not measurement units. i never declared nor implied standard to be "standard" or in any way superior (or inferior for that matter) to metric. apart from this comment i'm making now, not a single person has commented anything outside of the joke's thread. if you want proof that you are all morons, my first joke was modded a Troll and my instant comment to